New Delhi: After operating Panna-Mukta oil and gas fields for 25 years, Royal Dutch Shell and Reliance Industries will revert the western offshore fields back to state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), the companies said in a statement.
Panna-Mukta and Tapti (PMT) oil and gas fields in the Arabian Sea off the Mumbai coast were in 1994 awarded a consortium of US energy giant Enron and Reliance.
ONGC, which had originally discovered the fields, as a government nominee given 40% back-in rights. Enron during its bankruptcy was taken over by BG Group of UK in 2003. BG Group's interest was subsequently taken over by Shell in 2016.
The 25-year production sharing contracts for the PMT fields expires this week and Reliance and Shell had decided not to seek an extension for Panna-Mukta fields.
"After 25 years of operating the Panna-Mukta oil and gas fields, the Panna-Mukta and Tapti Joint Venture partners will be handing over the Panna-Mukta oil and gas fields back to the Government of India's (GOI) nominee i.e. ONGC on December 21, 2019," a joint statement issued by Reliance and Shell said.
Reliance and BG Exploration and Production India Ltd (BGEPIL) hold 30 per cent stake each in PMT while the balance 40 per cent is with ONGC.
"The production sharing contracts (PSC) for the Panna-Mukta and Tapti fields, which were executed by the PMT JV with the Government of India in 1994, will expire on December 21, 2019," it said.
The Tapti fields had ceased production earlier in 2016 and the Tapti process platform facilities were handed over to ONGC (GOI nominee) in 2016.
